Laura
Holleman '92: Key
Player in Goldman Sachs' European Investment Business

Named
a managing director in a preeminent global business just 12 years out of
law school, Laura Holleman '92 considers herself fortunate, "I
have been able to capitalize on unique opportunities as they have presented
themselves – relocating to London, using my language ability to carve
out a niche for myself in the market, seeking out responsibilities for special
projects – and a not insignificant amount of luck and good timing as
the European capital markets and the equity culture have exploded in the
last ten years." Her signature attribute is the ability to see and
seize opportunities.

Laura caught the "international bug" before
college. The daughter of an IBM executive assigned to Germany for three
years, Laura honed her language
skills and gained an international perspective on culture and politics. A
logical extension of her interest was majoring in international relations
at Michigan
State.

Next stop was Moritz where Laura spent her first summer working as
a paralegal in Sullivan & Cromwell's New York office, "working
as hard as I could for as many hours as I could, for as many different
lawyers as I
could." That effort paid off and she returned to the firm as a summer
associate the next year where she was inspired by the success of Moritz
alumni Bob Reeder '84 and David Braff '84. Laura let the firm
know of her interest in working in its London office.

Back in Columbus,
Laura studied with Professor Shipman. Of the experience,
she says, "As is no doubt the case with many students who eventually
pursue legal careers in capital markets, my securities law classes with
Morgan Shipman have been the most memorable and most often quoted in
my career." Laura
also spent a semester in London during her second year at Moritz, which
reaffirmed her interest in living and working abroad.

Laura joined Sullivan & Cromwell
upon graduating and a few months later was asked if she would like to
spend "a few months" in London helping
out during an extremely busy period. "My experience in London was
exceptional," says
Laura, "We were an incredibly small office – 13 lawyers at
the time – and desperately busy. If I thought I was working hard
as a paralegal, life as a first year associate was a real eye-opener."

Assignments
were fast and varied from listing a Portuguese financial institution
and a UK oil and gas company on the New York Stock Exchange
to working
on the initial public offering and listing in Frankfurt of Adidas. The
most
influential
transaction came in 1995 when the German government announced its intention
to privatize Deutsche Telekom and appointed Goldman Sachs, together with
Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, as global coordinator of the offering.
Sullivan & Cromwell,
which has a very strong institutional relationship with Goldman Sachs,
was appointed U.S. counsel to the underwriters. Laura says, "the
transaction was transformational for the market, resulted in Sullivan & Cromwell
opening a Frankfurt office, and provided me with an opportunity to develop
professional
relationships in the German market that continue today."

At the
conclusion of the project, Laura joined J.P. Morgan to learn the "buy
side" of the market. Laura says, "It looked like an exciting
opportunity to be on the opposite side of the transactions I had been
working on. It also
provided perspective on what I really enjoyed working on at Sullivan & Cromwell."

After
a year, Goldman Sachs approached Laura about heading the legal unit that
supports its investment banking operations in the German-speaking
region. Coming
full circle, she arrived at Goldman Sachs in time to work on the follow-on
equity transactions for Deutsche Telekom with many of the same people
she
had worked with while at Sullivan & Cromwell. She was asked to become
co-head of the European Investment Banking Legal Group in 2001 and promoted
to Managing
Director in October 2004. Laura's 12-strong group, including seven
lawyers who are qualified either in the US or UK, provides support for
the European
Investment Banking Division and Financing Group where all corporate finance
and merger and acquisition work takes place.

Once again, Laura finds herself
at the epicenter of opportunity. She sees the European capital markets
experiencing unprecedented regulatory
activity
as
the European Union continues to work toward a single financial market. "Intense
competition in the industry is increasing risk and lowering returns," says
Laura; "Generally speaking, stricter regulation in Europe, particularly
in the area of the management conflicts of interest and the European
prospectus directive, plays to our strengths. Increased competition,
which tends to lead
to the lowering of standards, does not." Against this backdrop,
Laura is proud that Goldman Sachs' global policies incorporate
the most stringent US and UK regulatory policies and mandates and results
in "managing our
business to the highest common denominator of regulation."

Looking
back, Laura readily admits she never crafted a master plan for her career.
Her advice to current Moritz students interested in international
careers is to, "actively seek out opportunities to study or work
abroad and be ready to take chances on unusual possibilities, whether
or not they seem relevant
at the time." She says, "In fact, if anyone had told me at
graduation that I would become a managing director of Goldman Sachs and
spend my entire
career working in Europe, I would have laughed." No one is laughing
now.